Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Airgun Venue Lost
Our local airgun club, the Tennessee Valley Airgunners, have been shooting here in Huntsville for about 5 years now. We have been shooting on a piece of property that is owned by one of our club members. It is a beautiful piece of land that stretched up to the top of one of the hills that are prevalent in this area. We shot in a nicely wooded area that had both heavily wooded areas and open areas. Unfortunately for us, the land owner decided to sell almost all of the land to another individual and we cannot shoot on the land any longer. Our club has lost our shooting venue.
It is a real shame for us. The venue had a lot of space to shoot but was still pretty close to Huntsville. The club was slowly starting to grow as more airgunners in the area found out about us from the Internet. The area on the property that we shot in had a nice big field next to the wooded area that allowed for a vast practice range with a very short walk into the wood for the match. With in the woods, there was some heavily wooded areas and then some more open areas including a 50-60 yard wide field that always had some kind of wind going on. The shooting path was completely in the shade though which was really nice in the hot summer months. All in all the venue had a lot to offer with a wide variety of shooting possibilities.
I started thinking some about home much time and effort running the club took. Basically it was a two man operation with myself and Donnie Ross pretty much doing all the prep work and running the matches. We are the only two local members of our club so the responsibilities fell on us to make things happen. We enjoyed the matches so it wasn't a big burden for us.
Now that our range is gone, I am looking forward to spending my time on other endeavors. I have been wanting to develop my website more and I have a whole host of ideas for targets and other airgun related projects. I would like to start writing reviews again and spending more time puttering around my house with some small projects there that I have been wanting to do. There is just so much stuff I would like to do and only so much time to do it.
I was shocked and saddened when I first heard the news of the property sale but now I see it as an opportunity to do some other things that I have been wanting to do. I have been running various matches now since 1995 and it is time for a break. I will probably get the itch in the near future to be a match director again but until then I am going to enjoy the break and turn my attentions to some other airgunning activities.
It is a real shame for us. The venue had a lot of space to shoot but was still pretty close to Huntsville. The club was slowly starting to grow as more airgunners in the area found out about us from the Internet. The area on the property that we shot in had a nice big field next to the wooded area that allowed for a vast practice range with a very short walk into the wood for the match. With in the woods, there was some heavily wooded areas and then some more open areas including a 50-60 yard wide field that always had some kind of wind going on. The shooting path was completely in the shade though which was really nice in the hot summer months. All in all the venue had a lot to offer with a wide variety of shooting possibilities.
I started thinking some about home much time and effort running the club took. Basically it was a two man operation with myself and Donnie Ross pretty much doing all the prep work and running the matches. We are the only two local members of our club so the responsibilities fell on us to make things happen. We enjoyed the matches so it wasn't a big burden for us.
Now that our range is gone, I am looking forward to spending my time on other endeavors. I have been wanting to develop my website more and I have a whole host of ideas for targets and other airgun related projects. I would like to start writing reviews again and spending more time puttering around my house with some small projects there that I have been wanting to do. There is just so much stuff I would like to do and only so much time to do it.
I was shocked and saddened when I first heard the news of the property sale but now I see it as an opportunity to do some other things that I have been wanting to do. I have been running various matches now since 1995 and it is time for a break. I will probably get the itch in the near future to be a match director again but until then I am going to enjoy the break and turn my attentions to some other airgunning activities.
